Belarus Updates: When a One-Armed Man is Arrested for Clapping....

Protesters Detained in MinskEarlier this week, we wrote about the Belarussian regime's continuing suppression of protests against President Aleksandr Lukashenko. Facing demonstrations last Sunday on Independence Day, the regime responded with more than 300 arrests, blocking of Internet sites, and allegations of foreign intervention.

The story of repression has continued throughout the week, with episodes combining the harsh and the surreal. Activists had called for "clapping demonstrations", with protesters making no other sound, leading to this response by the authorities:

Konstantin Kaplin, an unemployed man from the western town of Grodno, says he was convicted this week of applauding in public and fined the equivalent of $200, despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence: He is officially registered as a disabled person and has only one arm.

Mr. Kaplin insists that he was only standing nearby and attempting to photograph demonstrators with his cell phone when plainclothes police grabbed him.

"The judge read out the charges, the police affirmed that I was applauding, and the fine was levied," Kaplin says.

There was no examination of evidence at all, he adds.

"The judge looked ashamed of herself, and I sympathize with her. She was probably under orders. But this is a huge sum for me to pay, more than twice my monthly pension, and I'm having to ask all my family and friends to help me raise it," he says.

An editor of an independent newspaper in Minsk adds the cases of a "deaf and mute person...accused of shouting antigovernmental slogans" and "a teacher...arrested while he was riding a bike...accused of waving his arms and shouting something in a kind of protest".

Beyond this black comedy --- an EA reader harks back to the work of Milan Kundera --- there is the reality of a conflict, which largely unseen by the world's media, continues to simmer in Belarus.

Last winter's protests against the "re-election" of Lukashenko with a claimed 80% of the vote were quelled; however, activists re-grouped enough not only for the attempted display on Independence Day but also to continue resistance during the week. A group gathered in central Minsk on Wednesday night; they were met by "squads of men in tracksuits" who punched or kicked protesters before dragging them away.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports on more detentions of reporters, with at least 28 seized on Wednesday as they covered rallies in Minsk and other cities.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty provides context for the latest wave of protest, with a 36% devaluation of the Belarussian ruble fuelling inflation, as living standards erode.